One of the most important actions to keep our roads, trails, and public lands open is to write a “substantive” report on every trail you care about. Unfortunately, 90% of all comments submitted to BLM are not considered because they don’t meet BLM standards. To learn what makes your comments count, watch our series of short videos on Youtube for helpful information, or just follow this process and let us help you.
The challenge we’ve always faced is that we’ve always been playing catch up, with only 30 days for most comment periods, by the time we get the word out and ask people to go out and write reports, we’re playing catch up and don’t have time to run many trails or provide great comments to persuade BLM or Forest Service to Keep them Open.
UPLA has launched Trail Saver, a new tool for you to prepare comments after each ride you go on, anywhere in the state. There’s nothing more effective than putting your thoughts in writing right after your ride when everything is fresh in your mind, and your photos and gpx tracks are easily available. If you spend just 10 minutes writing a brief report, it will really help us collect better data. Once you submit the form, it will email you a formatted copy of your comments for that trail along with some helpful hints that will make it easy to submit your comments when they are needed. We all think of something else right after we hit submit, Trail Saver allows you to edit or add to your comments, and will immediately send you a revised report. UPLA, BlueRibbon, and local clubs working that area may also be copied on the comments so that they can also assist.
You don’t have to worry about confusing dates either, once the comment period opens for that Travel Management Plan, Trail Saver will email you a reminder with all of your comments, photos, tracks, ratings, etc, along with more tips and instructions on how to submit them to BLM and or Forest Service.
Travel Management is coming to Utah everywhere, with 12 TMPs in the next 12 months, we must rise to the challenge. Make an effort to write short comments on every trail you go on, and let Trail Saver keep track of where they are and notify you when it’s time to put them to use. For the system to work effectively, you will need the BLM or Forest Service Route numbers, so I recommend you take a pic of those signs as you go by them and include those when submitting your form.
The areas immediately in front of us are The San Rafael Swell, Henry Mountains and Freemont Gorge, with Trail Canyon in Kanab following very shortly. Start submitting your comments today.
Together we can win, but we can’t do it without you!
Get out and ride your favorites, and report them using Trail Saver Route Reporting Tool